Bend down your ear 

Hear my words spit on the stony  ground

Place your hands on the back of my head

Move aside the caked blood, matted hair, find the soft part on the back of my neck

Stroke slow, soft, and whisper simple assurances

Help me to my knees 

my strength is gone 

There is no one near to lift my words from my busted lips

All help is lost, gone 

Please

when you find me

Lift my words to your ear 

Pull me up 

off this cold earth

Lie to me, saying 

It will all be alright

Swallow your terror long enough to

hold my shaking hands and

Bend down your ear 

I found a crashed antique spaceship

It was overloaded with memories

The kind ya cannot forget

Reviewed the last log entries

Scathing and succulent in words

A division of heart

Complicated by truth and desire

Smashed into the endless horizon of the big sky

I think she survived

And walks among us now

Clothed in her most secrete desire

So when out of the corner of your eye...

Yeah, that was her

And you are late to that party

In spite of the six pack in hand

you carry for her

Stand on sand, or perhaps

Slip or dock there

Look here easy waves, a simple wind

full of promise and travel

Water which washes up on every land

Touching India

Surrounding Britain

Punches a hole between Europe and Africa

isolating islands of memories

That wondrous wave may have started off of Cape Verde

Which hauls within it a loss of home

full of mmmelancholy nnnostalgia

Now laps lightly at the pier

And then you hummm

a forgotten melody

While tears fall

fill another wave with half remembered song

And memories

ocean full

surround you with gull cries

October is a knowing smile

Carried in a hot kiss embrace 

in a parking lot 

after both travelled far to meet

October is full of  Summerʼs last warmth

Longer nights and bright morning coffees

Wine and summer sausage and late night whiskeyʼd conversations 

October is shining trees witnessing a love walking the boardwalk

pausing to play old pinball games

Remembering our youth

October is all that fire caught in the leaves as they swept into your hair

Itʼs a lunar eclipse, a tight room, a place welded in time and heart 

October is you. 

1. Stepped out for a smoke and lo! I heard a great truck rumble by…  

2. Then I was in the spirit and I heard a soft voice saying, Look and I will show thee these things which must come to pass…

3. And I beheld a man sitting on a great white stoop and in his left hand he held a paper bag. Upon his right hand sat a woman. 

4. Their raiment was of blue jeans and T- shirts. 

5. And then she called out for the paper bag, saying, here is the water of life. And she did drink from therein! 

6. And they that sat upon the stoop did laugh, speaking unto me, come up hither! 

7. And I did head up, bringing smokes and words of thanks. 

Where to begin?

Do I admit my sin true as it is

Covered in chagrin

Start with simply this miss

Birds are boring

Annoying me while snoring

Books are a chore

I go to the gym more

Live to love

Watch the moon above

There, my confessionʼs done

What more else to say

Going to drink some rum

Save the rest for another day

You walked over to me

Me just working on words

tracing the Sun with a pen

following the seasons

wording it up on loss

the sortie of grief

Sat right down without a word

reading my lines without asking

Brave, to read anotherʼs effort

as if it were a painting hung on wall

You asked to see more

That'll cost you

What?

Either a coffee or your heart

It'll have to be coffee as I have no heart, so I've been told

Black two sugars

You returned

sat back down

Against my skewed thoughts

I turned the page

for you

Fingers tighten 'round the throat

Wide eyes bloodshot with desperation

Shaking a death rattle gurgle filled with a mucus covered cuss

Limp emptiness on the dock

a quick kick and into the tide

No one can bury you now

float out to where hungry sharks

wait

I despise that

Even the sharks deserve better

than you

Still

There are times

In my bed when I reach for you

Emptiness

Then I reach for the whiskey

None to be found

So

And so

Toss the covers off

Walk naked onto the porch

Listen to the owls

Shiver

Smoke a smoke

Only to disappear in thoughts

thoughts that circle

Until

tired and cold

I climb back into bed

Happy that I thought of you

and your heat

And finally

all is still

Just that

Still